Haitian refugees and migrants, earthquake-displaced Haitians and Dominican-born persons of Haitian descent are living in particularly vulnerable situations within the Dominican Republic. They face arbitrary detention, xenophobia, and a host of other protection-related concerns. Forcibly returning Haitians to Haiti is not a safe or humane practice and should not be implemented by any member of the international community.

(Washington, D.C.) April 10, 2012 — Jesuit Refugee Service and our Jesuit affiliated partners in the Dominican Republic are committed to working together with stateless Dominicans, and with Haitian refugees and migrants, to challenge the racial discrimination preventing them from being recognized as a people with a voice of their own, and to overcome the wrongful policies that unjustly deny them their fundamental human rights.

Today, Dominican born children who are the descendants of Haitians who were brought to the Dominican Republic in the 1950s and 1960s and Haitian refugees who fled dictatorship and violence in the 1980s and 1990s are being stripped of their Dominican nationality by the retroactive application of nationality provisions first ordered in 2007, culminating in a constitutional change in 2010.

These policies have increased the vulnerability of an already marginalized group, exposing them to abuse, restricted access to government services, institutionalized racial discrimination, bias-motivated violence, labor exploitation, and even expulsion from Dominican territory.